Playground swing



Jan. 17,1967 r s oo 3,298,738

PLAYGROUND SWING Filed May 19, 1965 IN V EN TOR.

WILL/AM NSHALHOOB ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,298,738 PLAYGROUND SWING William N. Shalhoob, 5061 San Julio Ave., Santa Barbara, Calif. 93105 Filed May 19, 1965, Ser. No. 457,089 2 Claims. (Cl. 297-273) This invention relates to a playground swing for children and more particularly to a double adjustable arm safety sling for this class of swings.

Playground swings for children commonly consist of a seat, held in a suspended condition by a pair of suspension cables, ropes, chains or the like, which are fastened overhead, allowing the child sitting on the seat to perform, actively or passively, a very pleasurable swinging motion.

The educational value of such pleasurable exercise is very great since it provides an opportunity for the child to acquire the habit of adapting himself actively to certain danger situations. There is no doubt that danger situations exist in the use of a playground swing. Having gone successfully through experiencing and avoiding certain hazardous situations, the child is prepared to see similar danger situations in advance. It will then be conditioned to reacting in advance to certain kinds of possible perils involved in the climbing of the swing by means of momentum which the child himself or the nurse or other supervisory persons impart to the swing. The value of such conditioning lies in the fact that the acquired safety habits are capable of being transferred to many similar danger situations occurring in everyday life, thus making the child more confident in dealing with them.

In the last few decades the use of playground swings has been greatly cur-tailed due to the relatively large number of accidents which have occurred, in spite of the presence of a nurse or other supervisory personnel. This is due to the fact that the danger of a serious accident is greatest at the height of the are through which the child swings and at this moment the supervisory person cannot intervene. The child that slips at this moment from the seat will land with his head on the ground which of course may lead to permanent crippling or even fatal injuries. Nothing can be learned from crippling accidents.

Many safety devices for childrens swings have already been proposed, but insofar as they remove all danger they make the swing less attractive to the child, and, what is more important, they lose their educational training value. The child must actually experience the feeling that it is not absolutely safe in order to activate his propensity for adaptation to disturbing situations and therefore there is no training, no conditioning with respect to reacting adeqautely to possible dangers.

It is the objective of the present invention to construct a safety device which will greatly diminish the seriousness of possible accidents without reducing the educational training value of swings and without lessening their pleasurable character.

It is another object of this invention to construct such a safety device which can be manufactured and used at very low costs and with a minimum of instructions to both the supervisory person and the child.

These and other objects of the invention are obtained by a device which consists according to the invention of a pair of hand safety slings or loops, adjustable to the size of the childs wrist. The slings or loops, which are preferably of the well known self adjustable type, are secured to snap hooks which can be safely attached to pre-selected positions on the suspension means (cables,

"ice

ropes or chains) which hold the seat of the swing in suspension. The snap hooks are preferably attached permanently, e.g. by a piece of string or wire, to the suspension means in such a manner as to allow different adjustments of the snap hooks to the suspension means in accordance to the height of the child.

A preferred embodiment of the invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawing in which FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a commonly used swing having the double adjustable hand safety sling according to the invention;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged perspective view of the safety sling secured to a snap hook; and

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing how the childs hold on the suspension means is secured by the safety device of the invention.

Like reference numerals in the figures indicate like parts.-

The swing shown in FIG. 1 consists of the usual seat member 1 to the respective ends of which are attached hooks 2. Each of the two supporting chains 3 is secured to these hooks 2 by ropes 4. The hand sling 5 consists of flexible material for instance, as shown in FIG. 2, of a leather strap 6 with loops 7 to adjust the sling 5 to the size of the childs wrist. The sling 5 may also be of the self-adjusting type, tightening itself by the weight of the child should the child slip from the seat.

The sling 5 is attached to a snap book 8 that can be snapped into any of the links of the chain 3. A piece of wire or rope 9 is permanently attached to both the snap hook 8 and the chain 3 preventing accidental loss of the safety slings 5.

After the child is seated on the seat member 1 the slings 5 .are first adjusted to the size of the childs wrist and then the snap hooks 8 are secured to the appropriate links of the chains 3 so as to adjust their distance from the seat member 1 to the height of the child. The childs hands will now be in both slings 5 and hold the chains 3 in the manner indicated in FIG. 3.

If cables or ropes are substituted as suspension means in place of the chains 3, appropriate loops or the like may be securely fastened to the cables or ropes into which to snap the snap hooks 8.

If the child accidentally slips from the seat, its hands will remain in the slings 5 even if it lets go of the supporting chains 3. It can then pull itself up on the seat 1 or stop the swinging motion with the help of its feet, or be rescued from its hanging position by the supervisory person. Even if the slings 5 should let the hands of the child slip through, they will act as a brake, which slows down the fall and changes the position of the child during the fall in such a way that it will land not on its head but on its feet. Severe accidents are thus prevented, without making the pleasurable character of the swing less attractive and without impairing the educational value of the swing as a means of conditioning the child to adapting itself to possible danger situations.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that many changes and variations of the above described embodiment of my invention may be carried out within the scope of the inventive idea defined in the following claims.

I claim:

1. A safety device for playground swings for children in which a seat is held in a suspended condition by a pair of suspension members which are suspended over head to allow a swing motion comprising:

(a) a pair of freely hanging flexible slings of fixed size large enough to permit insertion of the hand of a child therethrough, a keeper on each of said slings, and

(b) means for attaching the upper end of one of each of said slings to each suspension member,

said slings being adapted to be tightened when hands are inserted through them to grasp the upper part of the slings in the hand and pulling the corresponding keeper downwardly.

2. A safety device as set forth in claim 1 wherein the suspension members are chains and the means for attaching the slings are books insertable in the links of the chains.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,838,482 12/1931 Hartman 297-273 X 5 1,848,313 3/1932 Buresh 297385 X 2,407,646 9/1946 Best 297385 2,610,670 9/1952 Grooms 297385 2,817,393 12/1957 Mitchell 11996 3,145,013 8/1964 Grudoski 248370 10 FRANK B. SHERRY, Primary Examiner.

G. O. FINCH, Assistant Examiner. 

1. A SAFETY DEVICE FOR PLAYGROUND SWINGS FOR CHILDREN IN WHICH A SEAT IS HELD IN A SUSPENDED CONDITION BY A PAIR OF SUSPENSION MEMBERS WHICH ARE SUSPENDED OVER HEAD TO ALLOW A SWING MOTION COMPRISING: (A) A PAIR OF FREELY HANGING FLEXIBLE SLINGS OF FIXED SIZE LARGE ENOUGH TO PERMIT INSERTION OF THE HAND OF A CHILD THERETHROUGH, A KEEPER ON EACH OF SAID SLINGS, AND (B) MEANS FOR ATTACHING THE UPPER END OF ONE OF EACH OF SAID SLINGS TO EACH SUSPENSION MEMBER, SAID SLINGS BEING ADAPTED TO BE TIGHTENED WHEN HANDS ARE INSERTED THROUGH THEM TO GRASP THE UPPER PART OF THE SLINGS IN THE HAND AND PULLING THE CORRESPONDING KEEPER DOWNWARDLY. 